Where were you in '85?

[scuncio]

I was in 3rd grade. Remember riding my bike past this old lady's house who had a Cortez Silver '69 Camaro, 307 car with the black hockey-stick stripes. I wanted it so bad! The next few years I watched it rot into the ground...these cars were still on the road then, even through the Milwaukee winters!

[MrsBillyBobcat]

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I was in 3rd grade.

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Some of you guys are really making me feel OLD!

Cool pics Mike!

Rita

[Leonard]

In 1985, started restoration on a wrecked 69 X77 Z28 that i purchaced Christmas Day in 84. My first 69 Z28. NOM 327, munci 4 spd, 12 bolt 3:73s. It was wrecked in the right front. Replaced the right front fender, inner fender, core support, Bumper, Header and valance panel. Installed intake and carb. Got to drive it for the first time in June of 85. I made the mistake of not mounting the Accell Super Coil. It was laying loose on the intake between the distributor and excellerator rod linkage. Does anyone see the PROBLEM here? Well, with a 2 day old paint job, (hugger orange) Me shifting thru the gears in a Church parking lot adjacent to my parents house, the excellerator stuck wide open while i was doing a reverse burnout. I was in panic. A few seconds later, i was pulling myself up from the broken seat back, car was not running and i could still here things that sould like the were falling off a wall. I looked around and noticed that about a 3rd of my camaro was sitting inside my parents house. Bit of advise, Bolt those coils down! Needless to say, i stripped the car and junked it.

[Born30YrsLate]

Leonard...jolly good show!!!.....
In '85 I was in kindergarten...not much happening at that time in my life...

[skierkaj]

I think I got ya beat there. . . depending on when in '85, I might not have even been born yet! Birthday of March 3, 1985 thank you very much.

[427TJ]

Hey MikeNoun, man do I miss cruise nights. Remember when everyone drove such cars as those in your photo and you could actually cruise some boulevard in some town and the cops wouldn't immediately shut it down? How about Car Craft's "Cruisin' USA" monthly series on where to find the best "Mains." In the San Francisco Bay Area (East Bay) we usually went out to Pinole on Friday nights unless there was a bigger "Main" happening somehwere else. People would make flyers and post them at all of the local auto parts stores and speed shops and cars would come from all over Northern California. North Main street in Walnut Creek was legendary in the late 1970s until the lowlifes found it. Once it was 'discovered' it was all over in a few months. Vandalism, gang fights, etc., caused the local merchants to jump on the police to put a stop to the whole thing. Then on to Pinole, Petaluma, San Rafael, Napa, and the same thing happened. Coincidentally, all of the Bay Area "mains" were dead by 1985. Now if the cops see a car making more than one pass down the avenue on a weekend night they'll pull you over and ticket you. Another wonderful pastime lost.


I also miss the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals West at Cal Expo in Sacramento. That event also resulted in a huge cruise in downtown Sacramento on Saturday night. Not anymore. You might look at someone the wrong way and get shot.

[StealthBird]

I think the Golden Age of Cruising was really the early to mid 80's. At that time, new Musclecars were running 15's, and old Musclecars became THE hottest thing around. The old Musclecars were myths to some newbie car fans. The guys that hot-rodded their hand-me-down 305 Camaros or 301 Firebirds, or maybe put headers on their V6 Monza, just could not believe what the old Musclecars could do in stock trim. To them, their new 185 hp Camaro or Firebird seemed peppy, but seeing a factory 400 hp Musclecar was like seeing a demon from hell. Old Musclecars ruled the streets, and most of them at that time were still all original.

All that changed around 1987, when the Mustang 5.0 and GNX really came into their own. This was a turning point, when magazines began running head-to-head battles between old and new Musclecars, something that would have been laughable just a couple years earlier.

Nowadays, we have 12 second showroom cars in the Corvette and Viper, and a whole plethora (I just had to use that word today ) of solid 13 second cars, from recent Ram Air Trans Am's to Z/28's, from Cobras to Mach 1's. Old Musclecars still have their mystique, but part of that mystique has been lost because the "fear factor" of riding in a 13 second car is gone. Now soccer moms driving an SUV, or a Lexus, can take out some of the old Musclecars at a stoplight. Strange...

[427TJ]

Sad day #1: 1985 when I sold my '67 Camaro to finish college. Happy day: 1987 when I graduated and bought a brand new '87 5.0 LX Mustang. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Traded it in in 1990 for a new black-on-black LX 5.0 hatchback with power windows, etc. I installed a Hurst shifter, SSC stainless headers, Flowmasters and a K&N. Took it to Advanced Autosport in Oakland and had them install Kenny Brown braces and subframe connectors, Eibach springs and a Central Coast caster kit. Man, what a G-machine. Sad day #2: selling it in 1997.

[jg95z28]

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Hey MikeNoun, man do I miss cruise nights. Remember when everyone drove such cars as those in your photo and you could actually cruise some boulevard in some town and the cops wouldn't immediately shut it down? How about Car Craft's "Cruisin' USA" monthly series on where to find the best "Mains." In the San Francisco Bay Area (East Bay) we usually went out to Pinole on Friday nights unless there was a bigger "Main" happening somehwere else. People would make flyers and post them at all of the local auto parts stores and speed shops and cars would come from all over Northern California. North Main street in Walnut Creek was legendary in the late 1970s until the lowlifes found it. Once it was 'discovered' it was all over in a few months. Vandalism, gang fights, etc., caused the local merchants to jump on the police to put a stop to the whole thing. Then on to Pinole, Petaluma, San Rafael, Napa, and the same thing happened. Coincidentally, all of the Bay Area "mains" were dead by 1985. Now if the cops see a car making more than one pass down the avenue on a weekend night they'll pull you over and ticket you. Another wonderful pastime lost.


I also miss the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals West at Cal Expo in Sacramento. That event also resulted in a huge cruise in downtown Sacramento on Saturday night. Not anymore. You might look at someone the wrong way and get shot.

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That brought tears to my eyes. I remember in the early 80's when El Camino Real in San Mateo was a hot spot. That was until they had the same problems as Walnut Creek and other places... Ahhhh, the good old days.

[427TJ]

Yes, and Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose was another legendary 'Main.' That one and North Main in Walnut Creek were both separate "Cruisin' USA" features in Car Craft. Man, it just doesn't seem like 25 years ago.

As a 1980 high school graduate one of my favorite "flashback" movies is "Dazed and Confused." That dude with the '70 SS Chevelle kills me! We all looked like him back in The Day. That movie got it right in many ways.

I miss my high school auto shop class too. On nice-weather Fridays we'd clean up our cars in preparation for the main that night. We'd get credit just for washing and "tuning" our cars (opening the hood and fiddling around). Whoever had tunes in his car would crank up KRQR ("The Rocker"--S.F.) or KOME (San Jose) while we worked.

Man, where did the last 25 years GO?